We will soon be able to see some more fruits of our labors!

Hello everybody!

First off, this week was the last week of the transfer.  We got our transfer calls this morning, and both Elder Gaylor and I will be staying in the Santa Maria 3rd Ward!  (Next transfers end April 6th). This is super cool because we will now be able to witness the baptism of Benito and Griselda!  Since last week, they have moved up their baptismal date to March 15th!  They are SO anxious to be baptized!  We cannot wait!

It's unbelievable how fast these weeks, months, and transfers are going.  Time is moving too fast!  

So!  Yesterday, 4 of our investigators attended church!  Mario came, Benito & Griselda went to another ward to witness a baby blessing, and Rachel came too!  It was such a great day for that because it was our ward's fast Sunday.  Next Sunday is our Stake Conference, and President Castro will be speaking.  It's going to be super awesome!  

I would like to tell all of you about a little miracle that happened this week.  We, currently in the "finding stage", have tracted each day for about 2 hours every day this transfer.  I know, that's probably nothing compared to others, but it certainly is draining.  Anyways, we went to an apartment complex and found a lady named Jamie.  She's a single mom with four young daughters, and she goes to a local Presbyterian church.  When we stopped by for the 2nd time, she said,  "I'm guessing you two can't come in here alone, right?"  We told her about the third male rule, and so she said "Hold on" and she went and got two folding chairs and gave them to us!  We all sat down on her porch and we taught her the Restoration lesson.  She was really intrigued, and we gave her a Book of Mormon, explained a little bit about it, and encouraged her to read and pray.  When we came by again, she had read all of the Introduction, Title page, and the Testimonies of the 3 and 8 witnesses, and had read most of 1 Nephi 1.  She then said, "I kind of feel like this is like the Bible.  Sometimes the beginning isn't always the best place to start.  Is there a particular place that you would like me to read?"  We only asked her to read the Introduction the time before, and so we cheerfully invited her to read 3 Nephi 11-27 about the coming of Christ to the Nephites.  We encouraged her to compare side-by-side with the Bible, for her to see that Jesus is preaching the same Gospel.  We then set up a return appointment for this Thursday, and a member is planning on going with us!  I am so thankful for the Lord's answer to our prayers for putting her in our path.  She may or may not get baptized in the near future, but regardless of that, we are planting seeds!  It is such a fulfilling feeling.

Last night, we showed "Special Witnesses of Christ" to Benito and Griselda.  It was such a spiritual experience to feel the Holy Ghost coming from the Apostle's testimonies.  They definitely felt it too.  We also gave them a copy of "The Living Christ" for them to put next to their "Family:  Proclamation to the World".

Wow.  So much to say in so little time.  I am sending off a few pictures of me with the people I am teaching.  You can now have a little clearer idea of who I'm seeing.  

Still no updated word on the iPads.  I hope they come soon!  With all of the new incoming missionaries, our mission is creating 2 new zones JUST for Spanish speaking missionaries.  The Lord is hastening His work!  It is so crazy how the entire Church is turning to a more missionary-minded focus.  Thank you all so much for everything!  I love you all!  Talk to you next week!

Elder Harper

                                                                  Mario

                                                     Benito, Griselda, and Julietta

Verge Collings and Marlon Smith, less actives

                                                            Spears's Family

Patricia and Robert, Investigators 

The Lords hands are in His work

Hello all!

This week was pretty good.  The Lord's hands are continuing to push this work along.   Let me tell you all about it!

So, I've told you before about Benito and Griselda, but just to get everything cleared up, they are a young couple in their 30's.  Benito is a school psychologist, and Griselda is in her last year of graduate school to become a lawyer.  They have a 2 year old daughter named Julietta.  They are so cool!  This week, we sent by and saw them, and Griselda officially gave up coffee!  Their original baptismal date was set for April 19th, but they decided that they wanted to move it up to March 22nd, and Benito wants to move it up even more!  They are super accepting of everything and this week we are going to read The Living Christ with them and watch "Special Witnesses of Christ", a video of the testimonies of all the Apostles released in 2000.  They went to a baptism at the beginning of this transfer, and that was the reason that they wanted to move it up even closer; because they saw how special it was.  Benito is probably the most solid person I have ever taught on my mission, and I hope to be here to be at his baptism.  His testimony is so strong.

Mario is the 450 pound Native American guy.  He's on parole right now, and his date is for April 19th right now.  He was interviewed by President Castro, and he felt that Mario should wait until he was off parole.  Mario goes to church every week.  Every week.  He has been going for a year and a half, and he's only missed it once.  He's practically more active than the bishop.  He's doing great!  We're just helping him along the way and reading the Book of Mormon to him.

Yesterday was ward conference and we had the chance to hear the stake president speak, it was really cool.  The bishop also talked and he related it to an escalator.  He said that when we are going up a downward moving escalator we always have to make sure we are moving up faster than the world is moving down if we want to make it back to live with God.  It was a really insightful talk.  The first week of March we have stake conference and President Castro is going to be speaking, it will be awesome!

Elder Gaylor and I are going to finish this transfer

strong.  It's been tough, but our faith is stronger than our doubts and fears.  We will continue to press the Lord's work forward!

Thank you all for everything you do.  I can feel your prayers of love and strength; Please keep sending them my way. :)  It makes all the difference.

Love, Elder Harper

The Lord's work will move forward REGARDLESS of what the world wants

Hello all!  

Another great week here in Santa Maria.  Little miracles happen every day that just make a mission spectacular.  

So to start off, you know about Mario.  Well, on Friday when we were teaching him, he told us about a lady that lives just under him named Jamie that he was talking to about the Church.  She went to a Valentine's Day church activity down in Lompoc and she loved it.  We knocked on her door, and we just started talking to her a little bit.  We asked her if she was interested in learning more about the church, and she said yes!  We asked her if she would be baptized if she came to understand if it was true and she said yes again!  She said that she would go to church yesterday but she didn't, so we'll be stopping by her place soon.  Mario is a stud!

On Thursday, it poured rain all day long.  We were on exchanges that day and we used the rain to our advantage.  We were walking around in our rain jackets, and it was raining so hard that some rain seeped through and we still got wet.  When we knocked on people's doors, they said, "You're still going around in this rain??" and we always responded, "Yeah!  We know that this message is important!"  There was a street called Harper Ct. and we went tracting down that and we ran into a golden couple that asked us to pray for their health and for their cousin who had cancer.  They told us that they had an uncle who recently passed away from cancer as well.  We bore a simple but powerful testimony about the Plan of Salvation, and they set up a return appointment with the other elders tonight at 7:30.  I know that going down Harper Ct. was inspired, it was great.

That same day, Elder Gaylor and the other missionary had a church tour with Rachel, another one of our investigators.  They said that the Spirit was really strong.  What was cool as well is she came to sacrament meeting yesterday and she said that she will have a few more questions for us the next time we visit.  We love questions! :)

After church yesterday we had the opportunity to go with a newly ordained priest to administer the sacrament to a few elderly members from our ward.  He was able to bless the sacrament, and we helped him along the way.  After we gave the sacrament to an older lady, she asked us for a blessing, and I was able to bless her.  The spirit was so strong, and she cried afterwards.  Elder Gaylor and I were talking afterward and we were just saying that doing that was one of the most fulfilling acts of service ever: administering the sacrament and giving someone a blessing.  The Priesthood is such an amazing thing to have to bless others' lives.  I got a confirmation that we were there doing exactly what Christ would have us do.  It was a very good day.

This week we also had an opportunity to have our interviews with President Castro, which was nice.  It was a pretty short interview, but I could definitely feel the Spirit of love that he has for all of the missionaries.  He was talking to us as a group and he was saying that the Lord doesn't need us, and the only reason that we are here is for us to experience the joy that Heavenly Father wants us to feel.  The Lord can do His work with or without us.  He is simply giving us the opportunity to feel joy in doing His work.  

Also!  I think iPads will be coming to this mission very soon!  Rumor has it that in March they will be here.  Personally, I think it won't be until July when President Felix comes in, but we can't wait!  Hopefully it IS March!  It will be interesting to see how doing missionary work over the internet will impact people.  It makes so much sense.  Although the face-to-face interaction can never be replaced, a lot more people are comfortable going on their computers than answering a door and talking to strangers.  The Lord is adapting His work to fit His people.

We still haven't had any luck finding new people to teach, but I'm very happy with the work that we are doing.  Little acts of Christlike service each day, a kind word, even a smile can make someone's day and makes anybody a missionary.  I'm really grateful that we all have this Gospel in our lives and that we can enjoy the blessings that come from living the commandments.  

Thank you so much for your letters.  They make my day every time.  It's really weird how my pre-mission life is becoming blurry and it seems like it was forever ago.  The letters and the communication clear that up.  It was weird going into an investigators house and seeing the Olympics opening ceremony in Russia on the TV.  Yes, Elder Harper, there IS a world outside of the mission boundaries....mission life is great. :)

This work is true.  The Gospel is spreading throughout the Earth like the stone cut out of the mountain without hands.  It will fill every corner of the Earth and every person will have had a chance to hear about the Church.  How amazing that will be!  I love you all!   Have a fantastic week!  Until the next!  Happy Valentine's day!

Elder Harper

Fasting works miracles

Hello everyone!

This week has been pretty good!  As usual, we did a lot more tracting and finding.  We went on a blitz with the Zone Leaders and they helped us find some more potential investigators.  Tracting is interesting; you don't really know who's going to answer the door, you don't know what's going on inside the house, and you don't know what their reaction is going to be; it's really weird, but fun at the same time!  We knocked on one guys door, and all he said was, "Holy sh** get off my property" and he slammed the door.  It was kind of funny.  Interestingly enough, the next door we knocked on, we found a 19 year old guy named Will.  He was raised in a Catholic family, and he had a lot of questions that he couldn't find answers to.  We talked to him on his porch for an hour.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon, the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and even a few of the Commandments.  He wanted to know it all!  Before we left, he told us his mom sent him a text message and she said, "God has an answer for you."  We knocked on his door later that same day!  He told us he didn't know what his parents' reaction would be with us coming by, but he gave us his phone number.  We sent him a text and he didn't respond, and we tried knocking on his door again but nobody answered.  If nothing else happens, at least we can feel peace that we taught him about the Gospel and we planted seeds.

Elder Gaylor and I are doing a lot of good work here.  We have pretty different personalities, but it all balances out and we do good.  We both got 37 declarations this week, and the average is around 20.  It's awesome.  He's super funny and we always talk in this strange Mexican Nacho Libre accent to each other, and I don't even know how we started.

So, if you're wondering about the subject line, I'll explain it to you now.  So for January and February, we've been having a dual stake fast for rain.  It's been the worst drought since the 70's, and the water levels are around 30%.  I guess the governor has announced a "state of emergency" for all of California because we aren't getting enough rain.  Well, yesterday, Sunday morning, it started to rain RIGHT as fasting testimony meeting started.  It was so cool, the Spirit was so strong in the entire congregation.  

With yesterday being Superbowl Sunday, we rode our bikes after church to the park and there was absolutely nobody there.  We didn't feel right about going around an knocking on people's doors, so it was just an interesting day.  Cam, thanks for telling us the score, we were wondering. :)

I know I say this every week, but I love you all.  I am so blessed to have such a great family and great friends.  I am thankful for this Church, and all that it means to all of us.  Being a missionary is hard, but the blessing are endless.  I love all of the little miracles we receive on a daily basis; tender mercies from heaven.  God loves us all so much, and He is anxious to help us and is concerned about our welfare and salvation.  I love you!  Til next week!  

Elder Harper

The Lord answers our prayers

Hello again!

Man, this is crazy.  Every week it just seems like it goes by in a heartbeat.  The weeks are just becoming meshed together and everything is going by so fast.  My time out here has really been the fastest time in my life.  I was pondering to myself the other day, and in about a week, I will have been out for 8 whole months.  That is just so weird to me.  I'm really starting to feel "missionary old" when I talk about some missionaries I've been around in the past and some people don't even know who they are.  It's just so weird.  Time certainly flies when you are in the service of the Lord.

Wow, where do I even begin for this week?  Well, every Monday we do our usual stuff.  This last week we played basketball, dodgeball and football in the Church's carpeted gym.  We all decided that we don't like carpeted gyms that much, so we are going to go to the other gym today and then play ultimate frisbee outside.  P-days certainly are a blessing, just to have a change in routine and to be able to let my mind rest for a little bit.

Haha so this week 1 of our 4 total investigators moved, so now we are down to 3 that we each only see once a week because their schedules can't really allow it.  All of them have baptismal dates in April.  There's a guy named Mario and he's super cool.  He's been meeting with the missionaries for a long time now and he's just solid.  He's about 450 pounds and Native American.  He's really funny and the Church really means a lot to him.  He has many friends in the ward, and he goes to church every week without fail, and he's been doing that for a year now.  Why isn't he baptized you ask?  Well, he is currently on parole and won't be free until April.  He's super excited.  His daughter was baptized a year ago and she's preparing to go on a mission, it's pretty cool.

The other 2 investigators we have are Benito and Griselda.  They have a 2 year old daughter named Julietta and she's adorable.  They are both progressing really well, also.  Benito is totally ready to be baptized today, but Griselda wants to wait until the Saturday before Easter Sunday to do it because she feels it will be more special.  We've explained to them that it's all the same, but she insists.  They are trying to find a way for them to afford paying tithing and everything, and there's only so much that we can do.  

There is a man named Jason McGuire who just got baptized on Saturday.  He is super solid and he inspires me to be a better missionary.  Anyways, Benito and Griselda were able to go to his baptism and they really liked it.

So, as we were tracting we had door slam after door slam after door slam.  We prayed on a lady's driveway that the Lord would humble the people and give us someone to talk to.  We knocked a couple more houses and then we found a guy named Jesse.  We talked with him for 45 minutes on his doorstep and we bore our testimonies to him and invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.  He seemed a little hesitant to, but we are going to stop by again.  The Lord really does answer our prayers when we pray in faith.

Well, my time is just about up.  I love Santa Maria, I love the ward, and I love my family and friends.  Until next week!

Elder Harper

My first week in Santa Maria!

Hello everyone!  It's great to be here to email all of you once again.  This week has been a trying week, but also a week full of miracles!  First things first, to clear things up, I'm follow-up training Elder Gaylor.  It's been kind of like a "white wash" though because he's only been here one transfer and we're still both figuring things out.  Elder Gaylor is a convert of 15 months!  He told me his story.  He's the only member in his family, his friend invited him to EFY and he felt the Spirit, and the missionaries came over and taught him and he got baptized!  Member missionary work, it's the greatest.  He said that he could just picture himself doing the same thing as the missionaries were doing, and so here he is!  He's freshly 18 years old, and he's really cool!

So, to describe Santa Maria, it's pretty cool.  There's an LDS, Lutheran, Baptist, Catholic, and Non-denominational Christian church on one street.  It's super crazy..As far as the actual missionary work goes, the people here are really prideful.  They think that they are well enough off and most of the time they don't hear us out, except for the miracles that I'm going to describe soon!  To be honest, I've never had as much rejection in one week than I've had this week, but that's OK!  I really can feel all of your prayers for strength and it's helping me a ton.  I'm learning not to get discouraged over it.  People have their agency, and it's just our job to invite them to learn more, to testify, and to help and serve them.  

It's really nice here in Santa Maria.  On Saturday it was 85 degrees outside, it's super weird!  I'm not used to this!  The members here are AWESOME.  So much love and support for us.  There's 4 missionaries in this ward, and we have the northern half of the ward.

So, miracle report time!  So this week, we had 3 AWESOME miracles!  My 2nd day here, we were going tracting, and I told Elder Gaylor to pict a street he wanted to tract. 

We were tracting down a street, and Elder Gaylor remembered a former investigator that lived at a certain house. We knocked on the door, and we had a 20 minute lesson with them on the doorstep. It had been about 4 months since they've been last seen, and the lady said that she wanted us to come by and keep studying with her, but it took a visit from us for her to realize it. It was a really cool experience, and they committed to come to church this upcoming week.

The next was when we were in the park contacting people, when we met a lady named Teresa. She talked about how there are so many distractions in the world today, and that she wanted to read the Bible, even though it was really hard. We explained to her that we could help her with that, and we talked with her about the Plan of Salvation. We gave her a pamphlet, and as I was bearing my testimony of it to her, tears streamed down her face. We got her address and phone number, and the other elders had a nice referral. Miracle for sure.

The last was just yesterday when we were going to go to an appointment with a member to see an investigator. As we were all walking towards the investigator's house, an older less-active lady and her son came outside. The son said, "Look who we have here!" It turns out the lady requested a blessing from her son, but the son was all by himself, so he was about to leave and go grab someone. We were able to go inside and assist with the blessing at the EXACT moment they came outside. God put us in their path.

There have been so many times this week where I've said, "The Church is true!"  We have been striving really hard to be EXACTLY obedient, and because of that, these three miracles occurred.  What a blessing that is.

Another transfer come and gone...

This week has been pretty good, a great week to end off the transfer:  So remember the lady that we did service for that came to church the next day?  She came yesterday too, and she approached me and said, "I just want to thank you so much.  You brought the Spirit into my home that day.  I have been reading the scriptures, and I stopped smoking!  I have a coffee pot in my house, and I'm slowly giving that up.  Thank you!  You lit my fire!"  Just from that experience, I know why I stuck around here in Atascadero for another transfer, just for her!  It was such a blessing.

Drumroll....However, I'm being transferred!  I'm going to the Santa Maria 3rd Ward.  I don't know anything about there, except that I'm going to be training another missionary by the name of Elder Gaylor.  Great things are awaiting me in Santa Maria, I already know.  Atascadero has been great.  I feel like my testimony of the Gospel and about prayer has been strengthened up here.  I have gained a lot of confidence here, and I will take that with me throughout the rest of my mission and the rest of my life.  I am thankful for the ward here, and I can't wait to meet new people and see new things.  (Transfers end on February 23rd).  

As for Jose, he is taking a break from us.  He told us that he didn't like the way we do things at our church, and he wanted a break.  I know he'll come around, many seeds have been planted.  I have to go now, but I'll be emailing you next week in Santa Maria!

Elder Harper